Look up — RIH pre-op is brighter

Royal Inland Hospital operating-room manager Lesley McLeod joins Beattie School of the Arts secondary students Kennedy Baillie and Karis Duncan in showing some of the ceiling tiles the students painted for the staging area of the operating floor to Joyce Bilodeau and her husband, Guy. 

DAVE EAGLES/KTW

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Anyone who has ever waited to be taken into an operating room at Royal Inland Hospital knows how boring the wait can be.

There’s not much to do beyond wonder when the nurses will come for you — and stare at the ceiling.

After this week, though, the wait will be a bit brighter, thanks to some creativity by students at Beattie School of the Arts secondary.

The students were given some of the large white tiles weeks ago and given free reign to create whatever mural they felt inspired to paint.

Gail Kopp, clinical educator at RIH, said most patients wait up to 20 minutes to be taken in for surgery — and the project was created to just add a bit of diversion for them.

The idea came from a leadership session where Kopp and other surgical staff heard about a similar project at an Ottawa hospital.

From then, it was a matter of getting it done, Kopp said.

Six tiles were removed and replaced.

The six went to the school on Ninth Avenue, where art students took on the design and painting task.

Five of the tiles were completed by the end of the school year and have been installed at the hospital.

One more has yet to be completed.

For Guy Bilodeau, seeing even the uninstalled work was uplifting.

While waiting with his wife, Joyce, Guy said the students’ works were awesome, something that patients like him will appreciate.

The art resonated with him for another reason, since his children attended Beattie in the 1970s.

Lesley McLeod, operating-room manager at RIH, said the works will help brighten the day for people dealing with illnesses — and also for the staff working on the floor.

Maintenance staff at the hospital, who also helped with accessing and installing the tiles, are making a plaque to install in the waiting area recognizing the work the students did on the project.

And, for Kopp, it may not be the end of the work — there’s also the day-surgery area and plenty of other boring white tiles in the hospital.